Culture|Television review
The fact-based Blackport series tells how Iceland’s national reserve was privatized.
Tourism is now a major employer in Iceland. Or at least before the corona, when it made a living for about 33,000 people – a country with about 376,000 inhabitants.
In the drama series Blackport (2021) goes back to the 1980s, when tourism was much less and fishing with its ancillary industries was the backbone of the entire economy, or rather the bog.
Admittedly, time was running out, with the introduction of the controversial fishing quota system in Iceland in 1984, which led to the gradual privatization of the national reserve. At the same time, currency, a tradable commodity, emerged from fishing rights.
The shareholders of the fishing company, Grímur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, left) and Einar (Guðjón Davíð Karlsson), are leaving to sell their cod catch on the east coast of England to Hull. They speak poorly in England, but still bring home suitcases of banknotes to Iceland.
But could such a bureaucratic-sounding turnaround be a valid starting point for a long television drama? Yes you can.
Eight-part, ending in 1991 Blackport is one of the best Icelandic series – at least in terms of understanding recent history, say Icelanders who like the series. Complex, overlapping private and public levels Blackport tells through a few forty friends what really happened.
The series, presented in Iceland at the beginning of the year, has also garnered a lot of praise abroad, most recently in Gothenburg in February. There, the screenwriters received the Nordisk Film & TV award in the same series in which the Finnish nominee was commissioned by Yle. Transport.
“Dramatic, funny, and unpredictable, without losing one’s voice,” the explanatory statement said, emphasizing the rule-breaking, border-breaking nature of the protagonist above.
The little girl’s single parent, Tinna (Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir), works at a fish processing plant and is drawn into a plot that fundamentally changes the course of events.
Protagonist Harpa, Secretary to the Mayor (Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir), who will seize the opportunity and start resolutely starting a fishing business with her husband and a couple of friends. It is the year 1983 in the Western Fjord, on the peninsula in northern Iceland.
The facts need to be kept in mind. The editor-in-chief of the series, also translated into Finnish Mikael Torfason has emphasized in interviews that Blackport is strictly based on true events, although the twists are sometimes comical, absurd, and grotesque, and the narrative, with all that, is truly unadorned. Tobacco smokes all the time, and a lot of booze is drunk, even the spouses are deceived.
Smooth Mayor Jón (Gísli Örn Garðarsson, center) will be elected to the Icelandic Parliament, where he will soon become Minister of Fisheries. Not everyone looks good, as he is also a partner in a fishing company. Gísli Örn is one of the creators of the Blackport series and has directed four of the eight episodes.
Drama at the heart of which is a small community, most notably Harpa and her husband, their couple of friends, and Jón (Gísli Örn Garðarsson), which will become a Member of Parliament and a Minister for Fisheries.
A little too close acquaintance with Jón gives Harpa an opportunity to get things done in the best way for a growing company. However, not for the benefit of all – as will become clear over time.
Blackport, Fem at 10pm and Yle Arena. (K16)
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